The Empire's Nightmare
by The pen or The sword
Summary: Alex Mercer; a name that had once struck fear into all who knew it, and what it represented. Now after untold aeons he has returned, the universe is not prepared.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello, ladies and gentleman, I present you with the prologue to my new crossover. Now if you are wondering what happened to Heller before this story I recommend you read "Lies of the father" It is the backstory for all my prototype stories.**

Alex J. Mercer was a being of numerous talents and over a thousand different lifetimes of experience. Even though he was only a few years old, the philosophers within his mind proclaimed it poetic and sad. A monster with a thousand faces, yet he lacked a face of his own. The closest thing he had? The face of his creator, the face of a monster.

At the moment Alex was simply standing beside his stolen commercial helicopter, enjoying the memories of a particularly annoying young victim of his. He took great pleasure in reliving her last moments of despair. In truth he was distracting himself from his own inner turmoil; in the last few months, he had come across two contradictory examples of humanity.

James Heller was the perfect example of everything wrong with humanity, a savage with no free will. Constantly after the orders of others in his human life as a soldier, and then when Alex decided to gift the fool with freedom what did he do? He turned on him, killing several of his evolved servants and attempting to devour him!

The only good thing that came of Heller was the tendril abilities his mutant strain created, Alex thought as he lifted his hand forming a mass of black and red tentacles into the shape of a small sphere.

He had been given the polar opposite in the form of Amaya. She was smart; unlike her father, she refused to follow others, and she never took anything at face value. If not for her misplaced affection for her father and her annoyingly resilient DNA she would have been a perfect candidate for evolution.

Alex felt ready for people to resist, just as any animal would resist when being forced to take its medicine. They simply didn't know what was best for them. What he had not been ready for was the sheer unquestioning nature of the most of the cities populace.

Blackwatch shoots civilians and no one questions them, after the words of a government that had betrayed them. Unlike New York, the cover-up here was a complete failure. People knew of the horrors Blackwatch was committing and still, they sat back and watched like the sheep they were. He had hoped to drive the wolves apart from the sheep, drive the strong from the weak, and then evolve them. Instead, they cowered and none had shown themselves worthy.

Thus he came back to the same question that had always plagued him, was humanity worth saving? There was so little of humanity worth evolving. Were those few enough to justify keeping the rest of humanity alive to breed new minds? Perhaps wiping out humanity and starting anew would be a better idea. It would take centuries of genetic manipulation to evolve the virus enough to make new complex minds from nothing, but perhaps a world free of humanity would be a better place?

It had also become clear that his sister would always be in danger as long as he tried to remake the world. She refused to stay away no matter what he said or did. She refused to see the corruption and death that coated the world. The world was sick and needed to be remade. Yet even knowing they weren't truly siblings. he couldn't lift a hand against her.

He wanted so often to simply evolve her and keep her by his side for the rest of eternity. His hand stayed by one simple fact; she didn't want to become a monster. If it had been anyone else, he would have evolved her and rewritten her mind until she either enjoyed it. He couldn't do that to her. She was the first person he had ever cared for and beyond that, despite everything he knew, she was his sister.

The thought finally hit him; he would test humanity. He would hibernate for thousands of years, so long that Blackwatch would have faded and his sister would be long dead. If he remained here he would be driven by his need to feel close to his sister, and she deserved a happy life without him trying to remake the world. When he awoke, if humanity still stood then it would prove humans were worth saving. If he awoke to humanity being dead than he would start anew.

Alex Mercer nodded to himself while lifting the helicopter with one hand, throwing it into the neighboring forest. He then proceeded to slam his hand into the ground, his hand morphing into tendrils. The tendrils dug ever deeper into the depths of the earth, searching and searching. Until finally, hours after Mercer had begun, the tendrils found what they were looking for.

It was a large thermal chamber, obviously part of a large volcanic network. Though it appeared to cut off from the main vents, a steady stream of magma flowed around the chamber heating it to blistering temperatures. A perfect place for the virus to slumber without anyone finding it, with the added benefit of allowing the virus to evolve a higher resistance to heat while it remained dormant.

Mercer's form shudder and flowed into the ground with a sickening crack, the tendrils all pulling towards the thermal was over in a matter of minutes. The entirety of the virus was resting within the chamber. The virus layered the inner walls of the chamber, with a thick gray and black carapace.

The carapace was quite like Mercer's own armored form, with a few key differences. If one were to look closely at the outer layer of the carapace they would discover shiny scale's lining it with a slightly reflective surface. If someone were to pull back the scales they would discover layers of nearly impossibly dense ceramic plating. These scales and plates helped to isolate the inner layers of the virus.

Within the carapace black growths covered everything, small glowing orange pustules bathed the inner chamber in a warm orange glow. Mercer stood within the center before melting into the floor of the carapace and fading into the black void of slumber.

 **End mercers pov**

 **Thus deep within the crust of the earth, the being known as Alex Mercer, Blacklight, Zeus, and The Monster of Manhattan slept. When he awoke he would be unprepared for the world above, but the world above was even less prepared to deal with him.**

 **Sooooo...Love it? Hate it? Let me know in the reviews. On another note own nothing please don't sue me...**


	2. Chapter 2

**Storm Trooper (Shepard) pov**

The galaxy was a massive place, it was enough to make even the greatest of men feel small. So it was no surprise that one John Shepard, an imperial officer fresh out of the academy would feel this way as well.

He had hoped to get a short action-packed mission for his first job, something to get him noticed. Instead he had to escort some miners to some distant planet in the backend of the universe. All to check up on some mining outpost that had failed to send their monthly report. Nothing could make a man feel less important than getting stuck guarding a group of repair men.

At least he wasn't alone in his suffering, Shepard mused. He shared his guard duty with four other academy rookies and a single lieutenant. While this mission was officially a scout and rescue mission, in truth they were an escort. This wasn't the first time an outpost's communications system broke down, and the workers there were unable to fix it. The lack of repairs either due to lack of knowledge or supplies to fix it.

It was a common problem on distant mining worlds. The Empire didn't want to waste any more ships than they had to. Thus they had created a system where every six months, they sent out a ship loaded with supplies. The ship than went along a route stopping at as many outpost/mining operations as possible. The supplies were than offloaded and the ship then got loaded with whatever materials and data the outpost had collected.

The monthly reports let them know the size of ship they were going to need. It wasn't entirely uncommon for an outpost to miss a report but with the inability to hail them on comms they were either under attack or the comms were in need of severe repairs. Seeing as it was a single mining outpost and the location had no strategic value it was most likely the latter.

According to protocol on these occasions, the empire sent out a small ship with a team of engineers escorted by a squadron of soldiers. These were often used as training missions for fresh recruits.

They were currently stuck on a rather small starship, no bigger than two hundred square feet. It was an old model, in fact after this mission the empire planned to decommission and scrap the ship for parts. It only had a class six hyperdrive system, so the trip had taken nearly three weeks to arrive.

Kinda sad though, Shepard thought. Apparently the ship had once had a class one point five hyperdrive before it crashed. It had received heavy damage when the empire acquired it and they had found it wasn't worth the cost to fully restore it. They had removed the rust and made minimal repairs to the engine. So now it was stuck ferrying rookies and repair men to a desert planet in the middle of nowhere.

Shepard sighed as he looked out a nearby view port. He could clearly see the planet below, its surface a barren desert. The third planet from its stars orbit, a large grey moon orbited around it.

At that moment, Shepard and the other recruits were standing around what had once been a star map, their pilot was to busy driving to notice or care. The lieutenant had commandeered the ship's main dormitory for himself; while the repair crew slept in the cargo hold. They had decided to sleep in the central hub of the ship around the old holo projector.

Suddenly, the lieutenant burst in. "Troopers, armor up. We land in thirty minutes." The lieutenant barked at them. They saluted as he left to make sure the engineers were ready for our landing.

Shepard was quite pleased by the feeling of being back in his armor. It made him feel like an actual soldier, rather than an escort.

 **(Storm trooper group) pov**

The ship landing had gone perfectly. They had set down on a simple metal pad set up to receive cargo off far larger ships than their own. The planet had apparently been packed with iron. Everything seemed perfectly fine; the only disconcerting thing had been the lack of response they had gotten when attempting to hail a crew to help them unload their cargo.

As Shepard looked out from the ship's landing pad for the first time everything seemed fine. There were a few tents and what looked like mud huts surrounding a rocky plateau. They had dug down through it to bypass the sand, a metal door buried in the rock face shone brightly as the suns rays reflected off its surface.

It took a few moments for Shepard to realize what was wrong. The whole place was silent and seemingly empty.

"This is lieutenant Josh Ford. Please stand by, this is starting to look like a lot more than a comms break down." Josh spoke into his radio, no doubt warning the engineers to stay inside. "All right, looks like we need to fan out. Look for any survivors on the surface. We split up into teams of two, Gregory you're with Bendack Search east, Porkins you're with James search west, Josh you're with me we search north. Don't stop till we reach that door. We meet up in thirty and search the mine; radio in anything that looks suspicious." Josh said as he glared at the nearby tents.

 **Line break**

They met in front of the door to the mine and to say the search was a waste of time would be an understatement in Shepard's opinion. The only odd things were a couple of knocked over tents and weapons scattered randomly along the ground.

"This camp is empty, if there are any survivors left they're in the mine. Be careful, I have no idea what happened here." Josh grimaced as he opened the elevator door. All were silent as they went down, whether that was due to their training or the fact not a single one of them were willing to break the chilling atmosphere is anyone's guess.

As the doors slowly opened, they each held their pistols at the ready. The doors opened to reveal nothing but ominous darkness, the group of Stormtroopers remaining silent for a few minutes as they scanned for a threat.

"Looks like the generator powering the lights is offline; we're going to need to activate the auxiliary generator if we want to search the lower..." Josh paused as the sound of machinery and lights whirring to life echoed throughout the mine.

The lights revealed a massive chamber; more weapons and mining tools littered the ground, except this time there were far more signs of a struggle. Racks that once held the mining tools had been flipped up like barriers trying to block something from the lower parts of the mines. Blood covered parts of the ground and walls, yet still, there were no signs of any bodies.

"Ok... Looks like the emergency generator kicked in when it detected our life signs." Josh said as he walked off the elevator platform and towards the blood covered floor examining it closely.

The rest of the troopers spread out as they searched the main chamber for anything that looked out-of-place. Shepard was looking through an upturned storage crate. It was full of rotten food and old miner helmets.

"Sir, I got something." James shouted. He was standing near a tunnel that seemed to slowly slope down into the deeper parts of the mine.

They all rushed over hoping for some signs of life, and sure enough, there was a footprint in the dried blood. It was pointing towards the tunnel leading down.

"Looks like there could be someone alive down here after all." Shepard smiled hope filling him, they may actually be able to save someone after all. Josh simply grimaced as he pointed towards the tunnel.

This went on for the next hour. They would come across the main chamber full of splashes of blood, rotten food, and weapons. Each time they found the same foot print pointing ever downward.

"This is a trap, someone or something wants us down here," Josh said grimly clenching his pistol tighter, they had just reached the third chamber.

"What?!" Shepard barked.

"How can you be sure?" Porkins asked looking left and right in his panic.

Josh opened his mouth to answer but Davek beat him to the punch.

"It's the same foot print in the same place and pointing down. It is always placed in the same way, and the blood didn't splatter naturally. Plus there are no other foot prints as fresh or as deeply imprinted in the facility. Whatever it is doesn't care if we know it's a trap..." Davek explained as he touched the dried blood lightly.

"After this mission, I'm suggesting you for a promotion," Josh said a small amount of respect peaking through his voice.

"So what do we do?" Shepard asked, worry tainting his voice.

"There should only be one chamber left after we pass through the tunnel in the next chamber, we go in cautiously and ready for anything." Josh spoke in a commanding voice. They all nodded as they followed him down the last tunnel. They had made it about half way through the tunnel when something fell from the ceiling smacking Porkins in the face.

He screamed as he jumped back, hanging down from the ceiling was a Gungan head. It Hunt by its disembodied spine, stuck to the ceiling by some strange black substance.

They took a minute to examine the head. "It looks just like senator Binks. The spine looks as if something just ripped it out." Davek noted with a raised eyebrow. He poked the head lightly casing it to swing back and forth. (I considered removing this but I need somewhere to vent my hatred of jar jar dang it.)

"Stop that!" Shepard growled as he grabbed Davek's hand.

"Relax, its dead just like everyone else here." Davek said as he tore his hand free with a glare. Shepard growled under his breath, their were three hundred people on this outpost surly some of them had survived.

They continued on, finally reaching the main chamber. This chamber appeared to have been coated in a thick layer of obsidian. Probably an ancient magma vent, but what stood out most were the growths covering the drill. Black tentacles and orange pustules now covered its surface. The growths seemed to have originated from a large grey structure the drill head had become lodged in.

They approached the drill slowly, ready to blast anything that jumped at them. Josh had just opened his mouth to speak when the troopers all heard a slow, loud clap. They all spun around to see a figure standing in front of the tunnel they had just left. The figure was wearing some very odd clothing. A jacket made of some dark material with white rings around the upper arms. A grey hood covered his head, his shirt connecting to the hood of the same color. It's pants were blue and it had some very plain shoes. It looked like a human male.

Despite the figure's strange clothing it would have looked pedestrian, if not for its ethereal blue eyes that seemed to glow from beneath its hood. "I was starting to worry I'd have to wait another eternity for you fools to come pick me up." He stated in a bored tone.

"Civilians should show some respect. We are Imperial Stormtroopers, soldiers of the Galactic Empire. Now put your hands in the air and tell us what happened to the rest of the mining crew." Josh spoke, following standard imperial operating procedures.

The being laughed, and they all felt shivers running up their spines, there was a horrible unnatural quality to its laugh. "I've gone by many names and yet this is the first time someone has called me a civilian. As for what happened here... Well, isn't it obvious? I killed them." The man smirked.

The troopers raised their blasters charging them quickly. "Why?" Shepard shouted hopes of saving anyone squashed.

"Well I was quite peckish after my nap, and they woke me up. Apparently, I become quite cranky when my beauty sleep is interrupted." The creature chuckled.

That was the straw that broke the Dewback's back as Shepard yelled in anger, firing his blaster pistol. He missed as the creature somehow blurred away. The others joined in, but their shots never found their mark. The thing rushed Porkins, his arms covered by black spikes and hands morphing into large claws. He lifted Porkins into the air, quickly throwing him into Davek and bowling them over hard enough to slam them against the far wall.

Josh got a lucky shot as the creature was rushing towards Shepard, the blaster was over charged with explosive rounds. The blast struck the creature in the back of its head causing it to explode. But instead of falling, it simply kept going. Black tendrils rose from his neck, forming a new head even as he knocked Shepard aside. "Hmm...Those guns pack more of a punch than those miner's peashooters." The creature smirked with its recently reformed head.

Shepard was too shocked to continue firing, and the creature was on him in mere moments. Before Josh could fire again, tentacles ripped into Shepard. He screamed in agony before his body broke with a sickening crack, dragged into the man's flesh. The killer then rushed towards Porkins and Davek, even as Josh blew a hole in its side. Tentacles stabbed them both, dragging the troopers screaming bodies into its sickening mass.

The creature turned to Josh who had turned his blaster pistol to automatic fire mode. Unloading far more shots, it didn't seem to make much difference though as the creature dodged most of the shots and those that hit were quickly healed. The freaks hands morphed into a two-pronged spike.

Suddenly the spikes were across the room, having impaled Josh and James. They were torn from the ground towards the creature, their weapons having fallen from their hands as the spikes entered their guts. With a single loud crack and slurping sound, they were both consumed by the creatures inky flesh.

 **Alex pov**

Alex Mercer was quite pleased with himself. He woken up to some foolish creatures mining and upon devouring them had discovered that the galaxy was far larger than he had originally anticipated. It seemed as though humanity had wiped itself out in his absence, but in its place Alex had gained a whole galaxy to explore. This galaxy sadly seemed full of the same selfishness and corruption humanity suffered with. Now Alex thought of the stars and all the suffering that he had to cure.

There were whole new evolutionary paths out there. Strands of DNA he had never even dreamed of. But for the moment he had a space ship to collect, he thought as he shifted into the lieutenant and began walking back to the ship.

Mercer pressed the button opening the door to the outside, sprinting painfully slowly towards the ship. He faked panting for air, giving himself a breathless quality as he hailed the ship through the radio he acquired. "There's a monster in the mines; open the cargo bay!" He shouted into it. The ship lumbered open, and he climbed aboard.

As for what happened on that ship... Well, if there had been another living being on the planet they would have never forgotten the screams.


	3. Chapter 3

**I just wanted to give a big shout out to my friend Cybertramon001 and Doctor dandy, they helped me get back into writing and helped me edit the last few chapters.**

Alex Mercer was proud, a terrifying idea unto itself. Though this was a strange occasion for him. Instead of feeling pride for a horrific and masterful attack on his enemies, it was for removing the rust from his newly 'acquired' ship and tossing out the supplies that were useless to his needs.

He kept the credits though; he preferred to rip his threats apart or manipulate them from within, greed could be just an effective weapon in one's arsenal and a good way to make people look the other way when he needed to take something.

Altogether, it was actually an unimpressive feat and one that most people would have taken some meager pride in. But it wasn't the cleaning itself that he felt proud about; instead, his pride was from the way he had gone about cleaning the ship.

Crawling along the sides of the ship were small orange glowing slugs; his newest creations. By recombining the DNA of an average slug with that of a metal-eating bacteria; he had created a race of rust devouring slugs. The slugs had eaten away the remaining rust and chipping paint. They had revealed the ships name plate buried under a thick patch of rust; the ship had once been called the Ebon Hawk.

After the rust had been removed Alex had reabsorbed the slugs, building another creature in its place. This one was far larger and had a vaguely humanoid shape. But that was the only thing it had in common with a human. It stood on a base of four stubby legs, its stomach making up most of its bodies. It lacked arms and a head; standing at four feet tall.

Its skin was the same hue as a white human, but with random growths that formed spikes along its front. Its back was covered in two rows of four, clear sacks going from the creatures lower back all the way up to where its shoulders should have been. Its front also split open revealing large curved teeth and several long tentacles.

Alex had dubbed the creature the Devourer, it was specially designed to devour any form of biomass. He had created it to specifically deal with the large amounts of processed food on board the ship.

While he could consume processed food and long-dead corpses like any other organic thing he came across, he found the process of removing any unknown chemicals, drugs, or pieces of metal to be annoying and time-consuming. The devourer had a specially designed digestive system that allowed it to break down even the most stubborn biomass without risk of losing any. It could also devour non-organic matter and break it down into a liquid form that could then be integrated into his infected.

The sacks along its back filled with the biomass from the stores, and glowed orange when completely filled. From there he could simply pull one of the sacks off and devour it, absorbing the processed and purified biomass into himself. The Devourer would then use biomass to grow more sacks to replace them. It also had an excellent defense mechanism beyond its large jaw; it could spit its stomach acid at opponents. Overall it was a very useful creature; Mercer congratulated himself as he devoured it, the creatures were bound to come in handy later but at the moment they would only draw attention.

Overall the cleaning of the ship was an excellent trial run for the creatures,s. He had worried that the acid within his devourers would've been too powerful, and accidentally destroy them from the inside out. There had been some damage, true, but he had altered the design to include chitinous plates lining the stomach.

It was time to leave the planet but first, he had to get rid of all evidence that anything other than a natural disaster had happened. He slammed his hand into the ground, using his new biomass to form tendrils. The tendrils ripped the mine walls apart and destroyed the supports, leaving it barely holding together. He watched with a small amount of amusement as the plateau collapsed, dust billowing through the miner's makeshift camp.

He felt pleased with himself as he finally sat in the pilot's seat. He was free, full of biomass, and no one the wiser of his return. The thought occurred he would have to start hunting down the best pilots in the galaxy at some point in the future. With a small smirk, Mercer set his course to the nearest inhabited planet.

 **Line break**

It had taken nearly two hours to reach the planet, Mercer grimaced; he needed to repair the ship back to full working order. At the moment it was hard to believe it had been such a fast ship. From what he could gather off the ships corrupted star map, this planet was far enough away from the Empire that lawlessness was the norm; the planet was known as Destore.

This suited Alex just fine. While a more economically stable planet would provide higher quality parts and repairs for the ship, one such as this would allow him more freedom to remove members of the populace without being noticed by the Empire. Until he knew their full capabilities, he would err on the side of caution.

The planets geography was rather unimpressive, it had one moon and a set of two red dwarf stars that functioned as its sun and was a near constant one hundred and five degrees. It was also covered in a large desert of red sand, its main city (if that's what you wanted to call it) being a series of buildings made of old rusted scrap metal. It was surrounded by a large scrap wall, probably put into place to prevent the sand and any native beasts from getting in.

Mercer landed on a metal platform connected to the scrap wall. It was one of many makeshift landing pads attached to the outside. Mercer walked through a metal door that appeared to have once been a ship's bulkhead.

Inside was a system of hazardous looking paths, constructed from old ship parts and suspended from the ceiling by a series of metallic cables. The paths connected to doors most likely leading to more landing pads; most of the paths leading down to ground level. Said ground level consisted of a main 'street' of packed dirt lined with different stores. The street had branching paths leading into back alleys and smaller stores. There were three main stores, and one large building which most likely functioned as housing of some kind.

The odd vendor littered the streets selling whatever scrap they had come across, but what stood out most was the number of spice salesmen and the addicts littering the streets. The Empire had supposedly stopped a vast majority of the spice trade, yet it looked as if the empire had the same problem all human governments had; sentient life was by nature greedy.

A couple of credits here and there and suddenly there was a mine set up to gather "Iron". Mercer couldn't help but roll his eyes as he approached one of the larger stores with a sign reading Argo's ship and robot repairs, hopefully, it would be worth his time.

Upon entering the shop two things stood out to him. First was the tall dark haired Wookie with a metal collar around its throat. It had a scar across its face going from one eye to the other, the scar tissue has stopped hair from regrowing. The scar was made by some three clawed beasts. In another corner stood a creature that was a bit harder to recognize. It was an Abyssin, standing at about six and a half feet tall with skin a withered green color, the most striking thing about it was its single cycloptic eye that took up most of its head.

The walls were also covered in random parts and tools, the front desk was made from a ships star map that had been cut in half. Hovering behind the desk was an old wrinkled Toydarian, no doubt this was Argo. Around the room stood random aliens awaiting their turn to barter with him. Some had droids or broken pieces taken from their ships.

Argo was currently engaged in conversation with what looked like a regular human. "...For the last time, no credits, no repairs! Now get out of my shop!" The man smashed his fist into the counter growling in rage. "Rhagnar escort this trash out of my store." Argo called out unimpressed

The Wookie began walking towards the man, who began pulling out his pistol. Alex quickly calculated even as the Wookie was lifting his bowcaster to retaliate. The Wookie wouldn't be fast enough to stop the man from killing Argo, and maybe one other. His skills were useless in interrogating the dead. If he wanted information and repairs, he was going to have to step in himself.

For those that had actually noticed his entry and had been watching him, all they could perceive was a blur of motion. Before they could truly understand what had happened, the fight was over. The blaster fell from the man's hand as he stared down in shock. Through the center of his chest was a fist, blood pooled onto the floor as his vision was consumed by darkness.

Mercer watched as the man went limp while resisting the urge to devour the man on the spot. He had already made a spectacle, no need to draw more attention to himself. He scowled as he shoved the man off his fist, the man's head slamming into the desk with a thud as the body slid to the floor. Mercer stepped over the corpse and crushed the blaster pistol under his foot. He turned and kicked the corpse towards the doorway, though he used a bit too much of his strength as the corpse flew out the door.

The entire store had gone silent; stares glued upon Mercer's unmoving form. The Wookie shifted its bowcaster in his direction while the Abyssin reached for its own weapon. "Alright boys, settle down. Weapons away." Argo said, waving a hand. He gave Alex a once over. "I suppose you did alright killing off that idiot. Welcome to Argo's Ship and Robot Repairs. Here's the rules: no starting fights, no stealing, and no wasting my time. You have a problem with the rules, and we have a problem with you." He looked down at the counter, rubbing it where the idiot had banged his head. "Now, what business do you have?"

"My ship is need of repairs; the Hyperdrive got screwed up pretty badly," Alex said in a bored tone, flicking the gore from his hand.

"Heh. You and everyone else on this rock. You got credits?"

"Of course. What do I look like, an idiot?"

"Well I'll need to take a look at it but first we must discuss payment. Of course, you will receive a small discount for saving my life." Argo chuckled hoping for some reaction from his customer. While Argo was used to working with criminals, he had never had as much trouble reading someone as he was having with Mercer. The Human looking creature sent chills down his spine just looking at him.

Personally, Argo thought that he looked like a scoundrel. But his actions were far too brutal to be a mere scoundrel. They preferred to talk their way out of a problem. He acted much more like a bounty hunter; one of those who never brought a target in alive. While he was glad for the save, he wanted this man out of his store. People like that tend to start shooting for no reason.

"So, what exactly are you in the market for? We have several options, ranging from legal to... otherwise." He was torn between wanting this man gone as fast as possible, and getting as many credits out of him as he could. If he was a Bounty Hunter, he had to be loaded. " I just want a three-point system." Alex replied cooly. "I'm planning on entering Empire space."

"I see. Well, those are rather expensive out here. The Imperials aren't just handing them out. Usually, I sell one for about eight thousand credits, plus two thousand for installation. Considering you saved me the trouble of dealing with that idiot, I'm willing to put it down." Argo explained.

Alex stabbed a finger into the counter, sinking it down to the first knuckle. He then scraped it along, leaving a groove in the metal surface. "...one thousand credits. Nice try, But the average market price for a brand new class three hyperdrive is only seven thousand in total. Plus I'm not interested in a brand new one; I just want my old one repaired to match their specifications."

"Maybe you missed the part where they're pretty rare out here. They may be seven thousand on Coruscant where everyone and their grannies can get them, but out here we've only got a few hundred in total. Six thousand. Any lower and I'm losing money." Argo growled

If a place like this gets a new hyperdrive, it's probably close to trash with about a couple million light years on the clock. Even if it started off at ten thousand, it's definitely not worth it now. Four thousand." Alex fought the urge to just consume him and be done with it. He'd have to kill everyone else, and odds were that a few would slip away. They'd tell their friends, their friends would tell their friends, and then there'd be a witch hunt for him. It was better in the long term to play it careful, at least for now.

""FOUR?!" Argo nearly exploded. "Is your head screwed on straight?! I couldn't keep my debtors at bay with that kind of money. Hell, my slaves cost more than that!" Argo's Wookie got into Alex's personal space, growling deeply and holding his bowcaster. Sighing in frustration, Alex reached out with one arm. He wrenched the weapon out of the creatures hands, bending it in his grip. He than grabbed the Wookie by the arm and snapped it like a wishbone. The Wookie roared in pain, only falling silent when Alex backhanded him into the wall.

"...Five thousand. Either pay up or hurry up and kill me." Argo bluffed hoping the creature across from him wouldn't kill him over a thousand credits.

Alex tossed some credit chits onto the counter. "You get three thousand now, and two more when I'm done with my job and I know you haven't sabotaged my engine. The ship's called the Ebon Hawk. Have it done within the hour." He turned away, walking back out and leaving Argo to grumble about 'cheap bounty hunters'. Well, he was stuck in the closest thing to 'civilization' in these parts. Might as well gather some more 'intel'.

Argo had felt true relief when Mercer dropped the money on his desk. It occurred to him as Mercer left, what had bothered him so much about his presence. He was too still; he did not breathe, did not blink and did not twitch. All living things made small movements even when trying their hardest to remain still. Even droids occasionally moved and vibrated from the motors and gears within their bodies, yet Mercer had lacked even that.

 **Line break**

Daka Gavalun was an Arkanian following in the footsteps of his childhood hero, Arca Jeth. He had joined the Jedi order later than most recruits, but despite this handicap had quickly completed his padawan training. Becoming a Jedi Knight was obvious to him, with his skills and training he had served the lesser beings of the council...The council of Jedi faithfully. His genetic superiority had made it an easy task, as expected of his race.

Though he would admit, the last mission he had been given by the council before their destruction at the hands of the Empire had been his greatest challenge. They had entrusted him to show a young Twi'lek around for her first few missions, reducing his position to that of a babysitter. The council fell before they could return to the temple for 'betraying the Republic and attempting to assassinate Chancellor Palpatine. However, as a Knight, he was privy to a secret broadcast from Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, telling how the Sith had taken control of the Republic and any surviving Jedi must go into hiding. Thus, he had been stuck taking care of the padawan for the past five years. They had drifted from planet to planet, wandering as they avoided the Empire's steely gaze and their Inquisitors.

He had even memorized the inferior creature's name; it was Lezbiso.

Even after the fall of the Jedi order and the loss of her fellow Padawans, she remained far too upbeat. He hated to admit it even to himself, but he had grown rather fond of the creature and it's overly annoying voice. They had run into a bit of bad luck some time ago. Their ship's engine had failed on them, and they had unfortunately been stranded on a desolate desert world that was within range. Despite his superior nature, the inhabitants had been less than helpful, with one particularly irate and inconsiderate shop keeper throwing them out of his store.

Their ship had also been robbed of many parts while they had been out, leaving them worse off than when they arrived. At this point, they were simply looking for someone who would provide them safe passage off the planet without costing them everything they owned. He hoped to find someone who could help him return to his home world; he could claim the Twi'lek was his new pet project. They hadn't had much luck though; no matter what he said to appease the lower life forms of the planet, they always grew angry and unreasonable with him.

Every attempt to point out the truth of his superiority ended with them shouting at him like the savages they were. Luckily, Lezbiso had been very useful in calming them down, her Padawan training put to good use. Yet she was as unable as he was to gain passage on a ship. Though she didn't say anything, he caught the looks people gave her out on the streets. No doubt there had been takers; they simply wanted too much from her.

He had been passing by that horrible store they had been thrown out of when a strange looking human walked down a back alley, quickly followed by four Rodian thugs waiting for the man who was obviously new here, and that meant he had to have a ship.

When the two of them dropped in and saved him from those thugs like the heroes they were, the man would obviously be grateful and thus have no choice but to help them get off the blasted planet. Assured of his own brilliance, he informed Lezbiso of what he had seen and led her in after the criminals.

 **Line break**

Alex smirked inwardly as he left the store. Despite some potential setbacks, his ship was going to be repaired. Then, once they were in the relative quiet of his ship, he could feast on Argos and his workers. The shopkeeper's wings were far too small to keep his mass afloat; if he could adapt that to his own DNA, he could possibly obtain flight able to lift his own dense mass. Additionally, there could be something just as useful in the others. He had a buffet of species to feast on out here; some of them were bound to have something he could use.

Just as he expected, the moment he turned into a dark alley, the criminal element swarmed like flies on a carcass. He was tempted to just keep walking and see how long and how visibly they'd follow him before breaking off or grabbing him outright, but he was feeling a little peckish after seeing the spread in the store and felt he deserved an early meal. Thus, instead of walking out the other end, he simply stopped and faced his pursuers. A quartet of Rodians, bug-faced aliens with massive eyes and small proposes mouths. They all started; clearly, they never had someone face them so brazenly before.

A turquoise colored Rodian stood at the front, clearly armed. "Human. Your credits and your ship, or your life." The Rodian spoke, obviously the leader of the small group. Alex smirked as he slowly tilted his head to the right.

"Hmm... I don't see that happening, but I must thank you; your stupidity has driven off my boredom for at least another minute." Alex grinned as they growled, speaking some gibberish that was no doubt their language.

"Human, last chance before we shoot!" The turquoise Rodian grimaced.

"I really must stop playing with my food." He shifted his arms into claws; the Rodians stepping back in shock as his skin and clothes turned black and spiky, his fingers turning into meter-long claws. His eyes flared a chilling blue as he chuckled. Keeping their heads, the crooks immediately opened fire, but the plasma rounds were far slower than the bullets Alex was used to. He easily jumped over them, bouncing off the walls and landing before the leader.

His body fell into two pieces, cleanly bisected down the middle. Tendrils reached out and grabbed the two bits, pulling them into himself. The surviving three fired several shots at Alex, the range too close for him to dodge. A hole was blasted through one arm and his chest gained scorch marks. They were expecting him to keel over dead when the wounds simply healed over and he ripped the next one into shreds, gobbling the slices. He held the other aloft about to devour him when his terrified friend dropped his weapon and ran for it.

Mercer grabbed the second green thug as the light green Rodian fled. He smirked as he stuck his hand into the Rodians chest, injecting the tendril strain of virus into its body. Throwing the infected Rodian towards the other and smashing them into a wall, the light green one cried in shock as his friend exploded into a mass of tentacles atop him, impaling and killing him.

Mercer smirked as he walked towards the mass of infected tissue and absorbed it. He processed the alien DNA and memories, body twitching slightly. He quickly sniffed the air as his eyes went into thermal vision glowing a bright orange. "Come out! I know you're there, I can smell your fear..." Mercer smirked as two figures garbed in brown cloaks fell from the roof above him.


	4. Chapter 4

Daka Gavalun was afraid. He had faced every challenge the council had presented him with fearlessly. He had not cried when he left his family to join the Jedi order. He had not gotten angry when the council had assigned him to babysit a young Twi'lek with stars in her eyes. Yet as he stared into the face of a creature that had devoured four men whole, he felt fear.

The creature was silently staring at them as it sized them up. Daka could feel Lezbiso's fear, her hand twitching toward her lightsaber.

He couldn't understand, he was Arkanian; the pinnacle of evolution. Yet when he stared back into the creatures cold blue eyes he felt fear, the same fear he had felt when he was but a child and was sure there was a monster under his bed.

The creature chuckled as it's claws shifted into five-fingered hands. "So I must ask... what are two Jedi doing out here in the back end of the galaxy?" The creature asked a sarcastic tone. Lezbiso shifted into a basic lightsaber combat stance.

"How do you know we are Jedi?" Daka asked as he tried to force the creatures mind away from the idea. Yet he realized too late the creature had no presence within the force. Where the creature stood there was nothing, the only way he could tell the creature was even there was by his own eye sight.

"You're wearing brown robes and carry no weapon, yet I see a slight outline of something near your hip. On a planet like this you want to always appear armed, unless you want to get mugged. You must be hiding lightsabers, if you were a sith you would wear black robes and wear that lightsaber like a badge of honor. Not even the most desperate spice addict would mess with a sith." The creature listed off in a bored tone.

The creature stood completely still not even breathing. "I see, is there going to be a problem?" Daka asked reaching towards his own lightsaber, using the force to bring it to his hand and activating it in all its blue glory. Daka had chosen blue because it brought to mind images of respect and honor. Lezbiso followed suit, activating her purple saber.

"Did you know Rodian's main diet once consisted of insects?" The creature asked inquisitively as it looked up towards the sky, seemingly ignoring them. Lezbiso growled, Daka could sense her sadness and anger. She was obviously upset about the casual way the creature ignored the question and lives it had snuffed out.

"They most likely evolved on a world littered by swamps, where they used their highly adhesive spit to lay traps that insects would get caught in. The solution took months to degrade and would use a series of chemicals and nano toxins to force the insects into a state of hibernation. In this state the insects could remain alive for months, even years."

"Of course they over populated and were forced to start hunting for food. Thus the trait that had allowed them to become the top life form on their home planet would become nothing but a forgotten line of code buried within their DNA." The creature lectured as it smirked.

"So... We can go?" Lezbiso asked, her sadness taking the back seat as she was over whelmed with confusion at the creature's strange lecture.

"I never said that. I just thought I would brighten your pathetic existences with some wisdom." The creature grinned as it rushed towards them. Daka activated his lightsaber as he force shoved the creature back. He was amazed as the creature was launched into the wall, he felt as if he had been trying to move an entire space ship. He already felt so drained.

Lezbiso ran towards the beast as it pulled itself from the wall, cutting off the beast's arm as she ran past. Now that they had it pinned between them, the creature did something amazing. It regrew its arm and laughed. Its newly formed hand turned into a mass of black tissue.

It threw its hand towards Lezbiso. Luckily, Daka force pushed against the beast slowing it's spiked appendage enough for Lezbiso to raise her lightsaber, cutting off the beasts hand yet again. The creature growled as it rushed towards Lezbiso. She attempted to strike the creature and managed to pierce it's chest. The creature was unperturbed though, gripping her by the neck as he threw her into the wall, creating a crater from the impact.

As the creature rushed towards Lezbiso, Daka growled, his strength was drained and the beast was moving too fast to easily hit. He pulled back, aiming for a spot next to his friend. The beast would have to pass it to reach her. He threw his lightsaber, praying it would be fast enough, and watched as the beast rushed into it. The monster was sheared down the middle from head to groin and stopped dead. Daka felt himself preparing to release a cry of victory, but instead watched in horror as the creature's severed halves recombined.

Daka fell to his knees in shock, so drained from his use of the force that he could no longer call back his lightsaber.

The monster's arm took a new form, it grew orange and green pustules. It's hand morphed into a spherical shape covered in those same pustules, orange light pulsating in what looked like a mockery of veins. The creature pulled back as if to throw something and as it's hand moved forward, the orb of its hand disconnected and flew towards Lezbiso, striking her in the chest. Instead of the crack of broken bones Daka had expected, he heard a squelch and looked up in shock.

The orb had exploded on impact, coating his friend in green and orange slime. He watched in despair as his friend struggled against the substance before closing her eyes as her breathing slowed.

Daka focused all his will power as he attempted to pull his lightsaber back. It was not to be, as the creature ripped him from the ground causing the lightsaber to skid uselessly by the beast's feet.

"Do you know why your order failed? It teaches you that emotions are harmful, but guess what? Those same emotions are what allowed your species to evolve to the point they have. Your order takes millions of years of evolution and spits on it." The beast growled as it held Daka aloft.

"Why...Why are you telling me this?" Daka gasped as he struggled to breath in the creature's iron grip. He had to keep it talking just a few more seconds and he would be able to call his saber to his hands.

"I ate my mother, thus she never taught me not to play with my food." The creature grinned as Daka's fallen lightsaber flew towards his hand. The creature grew another arm and caught it mid flight, crushing it as one would a tooth pick. The creature held the blue gem in it's newly formed hand, before a mouth opened in its palm and swallowed it.

"Now that was rude, didn't your mother ever tell you it's impolite to interrupt someone else's meal?" The creature grinned as it shoved its tendrils into Daka's body. In his last moments it hit Daka; he had been afraid of the creature but it was not just his own fear. He had felt the fear in his blood, the midichlorians themselves were afraid...

 **Line break**

Mercer was displeased to put his mood in polite terms. He had finally gotten to devour a force user and he had learned quite a bit. The force was a byproduct of midichloriana, a semi-sentient, symbiotic, and microscopic form of life living within the blood of most creatures across the universe. The creatures seemed to function on some form of hive mind, communicating across the galaxy with one another.

No doubt the creatures had a home planet and on that home planet, some race had created these creatures for whatever strange reason. There was no way creatures with such abilities could evolve naturally, and they most definitely could not have become so wide spread without the help of some sentient intervention. Now that race was either dead, crazy or even worse in Mercer's opinion, preparing for an invasion. For the creatures now directed the universe, keeping it in a near constant state of flux.

Perhaps the creators of these things had placed them across the universe to weaken it and were even now waiting for the galaxy to be weak enough to strike. Luckily the race was most likely dead since they hadn't invaded already. Still, the idea that such an advanced race existed was of great interest to Mercer.

The force abilities were either purposeful and the race hadn't wanted to invade, or more likely, in Mercer's own opinion, the force was a byproduct of long-term exposure to the creatures. Most likely caused by what ever allowed them such long-range communication. Though Mercer thought to himself, they also seemed to affect a host's body depending on their temperament. Perhaps they released a form of radiation when exposed to adrenaline?

He had also been unable to devour the creatures. They had committed cellular suicide and destroyed most of their DNA. Mercer had only managed to get some broken pieces of DNA and code. He would need to devour several more force sensitive individuals to get a full look at the creatures DNA.

Mercer was sorely tempted to devour the young Twi'lek but he had bigger plans for her. He was actually quite proud of himself, the Rodians had been far more valuable than he had hoped. With their DNA he had been able to create one new power and upgrade an existing one. He could now throw a chunk of biomass that would explode with a higher concentration of the adhesive once used by the ancient Rodians.

He had also improved his tendril bomb. When a creature was injected with the tendril strain it would force the creature to sweat the same adhesive, allowing his thrown bombs to stick to his enemies. Mercer eyed the young Twi'lek, throwing her over his shoulders as he took to the roof tops, sprinting across the city wall and landing next to his ship.

The Twi'lek would be the key to him working his way up the imperial ladder of power. He needed to get the disguise of another soldier. One that hadn't disappeared on a routine check-up mission. He could then turn the girl in, making it possible to meet the higher ups and take their place.

Mercer smirked as he planned his distant future. First though, he would visit this Arkanian home world. It sounded interesting. Mercer walked into his ship, smirk firmly in place and threw the Twi'lek down in the corner. Argo was floating in the map room seemingly not worried about the apparent kidnapping, his Wookie and Abyssin flanking him. "Well, engines are all fixed up and I threw in some repairs to the auto pilot and the star map. Pay up." Argos explained with his hand held out expecting cash.

Mercer took his hand and watched, face remaining impassive as Argo screamed. Argos had felt spikes pierce his hand as a tentacle grew from the hole. He screamed as his hand turned black and was pulled into the man who had saved his life. Argo felt the life draining out of him as he was pulled into the smirking monster.

Ragnar roared as he fired his bow caster, striking Mercer in the head. The Abbysin screeched, firing its blaster into Mercer's chest. It was in vain though, as Mercer kept moving regardless of the hole in his head and chest. He jumped over the Wookie, grabbing it by the head mid-flight and using his immense weight and strength, he broke the Wookies neck. He kept moving even as the Wookie was pulled into his body. The Abbysin attempted to flee but was impaled by a fist through his gut, groaning as he felt the life bleed out of him.

 **Line break**

Mercer was standing on the outside of the city, scowl in place as he stuck his hand into the ground, tendrils digging thousands of feet down. They created a large chamber but were stopped from finishing by a large red crystal. Mercer growled as he flowed into the ground, arriving to glare at the crystal that blocked his construction.

Apparently, this planet was full of the same crystals that Jedi used in their lightsabers. His tendrils were only able to chip off bits of the crystal. Mercer smirked as he pulled out the crystal he had collected from the broken remains of Daka's lightsaber. Mercer focused as the tendrils created a devourer and dropped the crystal into the creature's mouth.

Mercer watched, smile upon his face as the crystal became liquid, a nearby tendril reaching down and devouring it. The tendril coated itself in the liquidated rock, before beginning to mine the giant crystal again. It tore through it like wet tissue paper. The bits broken off by the tendril were collected by the devourer and then applied to another tendril.

Mercer stuck his hand into the ground again, forming a large brain, a hive mind. It was not overly useful to Mercer himself, he was his own hive mind and as long as a single bit of Blacklight survived, he could reform. The hive served two purposes. If an evolved were destroyed they would be able to reform either here or on any other world with a hive mind. He would not allow history to repeat itself, he would not risk the lives of his evolved again.

It would also direct his tendrils and creatures in his absence. It quickly formed a nest and began producing more tendrils and Devourers while also producing hydras to help tunnel. He would turn this planet's underground into a massive hive mind. He had given it an order not to breach the surface until he gave the command. The creature was slowly producing its own biomass but its main source were the fossils that littered the underground.

Mercer smiled as the devourers began vomiting upon the hive mind; encasing it in the red crystal. Mercer flowed back to the surface and jumped back to his ship's landing pad. He climbed aboard and set his course. If anyone had seen the grin on his face they would have ran in terror.


	5. Chapter 5

**Fair warning this chapter mentions of slavery, suggestions of sexual actions and abuse. Nothing to descriptive in that category though just mentions mostly. Also unwilling genetic experimentation, Mercer is a creature with little moral value.**

Within the depths of space a starship was hurtling across the galaxy, this ship looked very average in nature. The make and model were unidentifiable, suggesting it was some kind of custom model. Though its lack of paint or overwhelming firepower marked it as either very new or it had been stripped for parts. Though the outside of the ship seemed uninteresting the same could not be said for the interior.

Within the ship was covered in black and red tissue, reminiscent of vines. Yet these fleshy vine pulsed orange and red like veins, in the cockpit growing from the vines along the ceiling hung a massive eye modeled after an abyssins. Tendrils grew from the floor around the main control console, these tendrils split at the end. Creating ten smaller tendrils, they appeared to be pressing buttons at random.

In this strange ships cargo hold a young female Twi'lek was being held in an orange translucent cocoon. Besides her a massive creature with no face sat, grey skin covering its form, green growths coating its back. It appeared to be keeping watch over the girl.

Yet the strangest thing stood around the ships star map, all the fleshy vines seemed to converge into that room. They all met on one side of the star map the majority of the vines were connected to a set of legs. The feet were either buried beneath the vines or more likely the vines had once been feet.

The vines that did not connect to the legs were attached to the entities back. This entity was Alex Mercer, at that current moment random tentacles grew from his form. Mercers hands had been replaced, they were now a seiries of small tendrils, twenty growing from each wrist. He was standing before the star map, which at that moment seemed to have been converted into a makeshift workstation. Vials and beakers of various colors were held aloft by stands and shapes made of viral flesh.

On close inspection one would realize that the beakers were made of colored crystal, the same colored crystal found in lightsabers. Within these vials various liquids were boiling. Tendrils reached down picking them up bringing them to random eyes within the walls, the eyes seemed to decide whether or not the liquid was acceptable.

If not the liquid would be brought closer to the wall before a hole opened within it, pouring some other unknown liquid into the vial. Though at times the liquid was simply poured onto the floor as it was reabsorbed into the black fleshy mass.

 **Mercer pov**

Mercer was a very talented multitasker, able to section off parts of his brain and focus on multiple task at once. That along with his ability to manipulate his body allowed him to do far more at once than any other creature could. He was currently hard at work designing a new strand of the redlight virus, the purpose of this strain? It was meant to improve all the natural attributes of a creature without turning them into an infected or an evolved.

Mercer knew that a day would come that he would be revealed to the universe, or he would want to turn an entire planet to his cause. When that day came he would need something to sway the general populace of whatever planet he was trying to convert. He could not allow them all to become evolved, to few would know what to do with there new gifts and most would be unworthy.

Alex figured perhaps a consolation prize for swearing fealty to him was in order. Thus he began his work on a strand of the virus that would meet his needs. The problem was keeping the virus from mutating to much within a subjects body. It also had to remove the midichlorians from the subjects bodies, he wanted to ensure he was the only one influencing his people. It also had to instill a sense of loyalty to himself without connecting them to the hive mind, he did not want the minds of fools annoying him constantly.

His current problem lay with his lack of test subjects, while he could theorize to near perfection but without test subjects the process of perfecting his new strain could take years instead of months. He also had to contend with variety in his creation the virus needed the capability to infect multiple different species to a similar extent. It would not do to have the virus mutate to some foreign DNA and create some new infected monster.

While he worked with multiple strains recombining and disassembling them. He was also flying the ship, and watching the engine for any signs of damage. By his calculations he had just enough fuel to reach the Arkanian homeworld, with these thoughts in mind Mercer was almost unsurprised when a blast ripped apart his engine room. He was tempted to sigh, of course with all such things that seemed to line up perfectly Murphy decided to throw a wrench in it.

It appeared as if his ship radar needed repairs, it had not detected the large cargo vessel that had snuck up on him. He growled as he eyed his now empty fuel stores he would need to stop on the nearest planet, if he was lucky it would only take a couple hours to refuel but it was far more likely the ships engine had been damaged.

The attackers had sent a holo-message, in it stood a human looking creature surrounded by Abyssin, Rodians, and Wookies. All of whom were wearing slave collars, except for the human and a few Rodians. "Prepare to dock and disable all non life support systems or we will have to blast your ship open and forcibly board." The human threatened with a smirk.

Mercer sighed at least one problem had been solved he now would have a plethora of test subjects for his experemints and a larger vessel. Even if his trip to the Arkanian homeworld had been delayed, some good would come of this. Alex began pulling back his tendrils as he disabled all but the life support systems. Then he began his work.

 **Line break Slaver pov**

To say James Wilder (the newest recruit to the slaver crew) was annoyed would be an understatement. He had been sent down with a small group of slaves to investigate some tiny ship that they had captured. The crew was probably no more than four creatures, if they were lucky it would be mostly female.

James hoped there was a Twi'lek aboard, they had a small group of them on board but they were the captains personal entourage. He had his eye on a young Twi'lek that had been brought on board but she managed to escape and had been successfully evading sucurity. She had even managed to kill a few of the crew!

James watched with hopeful eyes as the ships entrance fell open, a man wearing a leather coat stood on the end of the stairway. The strange part James noted despite his disappointment was the man's smile. "All right come down and put the collar on, no need for you to die here!" He shouted at the man. The man responded by lifting his left hand and snapping his fingers, a loud growled responded.

James raised his gun, the slaves following suit as creatures began pouring from behind the man. They ranged from small humanoid creatures with gray skin, to massive grey monsters with no faces. They all shared one similar trait beyond the pale skin and black growths though, they all had green slime dripping from there mouths and claws.

The slaves opened fire even as he stood in shock. The large creatures seemed unbothered by the blaster fire, their wounds closing over the holes made by the blast. The smaller ones fell after about three shots, but when their corpses fell they were pulled into the bodies of one of there compatriots. Some men were killed and devoured while others only were bitten or scratched.

Those that were injured fell unconscious instantly, after that the smaller infected began spewing an orange slime onto them that seemed to cocoon them in place. All the while the man still stood observing as the monstrosities he brought aboard decimated James men. James was in the back of the group and the creatures were almost upon him.

He growled if he was going down at least he could take the smug bastard down with him. He charged his blaster to full power, the man stared him in the eye as he pulled the trigger. He fell to his knees despair fill him, the man would have plenty of time to dodge the blast. Yet he watched even as the mans creatures overwhelmed the last of the slavers that had rushed down to help.

The man didn't move, the blast struck true and as he hoped the creatures around him ceased moving. Yet he noticed the creatures attacking the rest of the crew had not ceased their attack and the body of the man did not fall. It instead grew a double pronged metal blade on its arm which had become wrapped in black. It threw its hand forward sticking James in the gut and pulling him back to the headless body. He watched in shock and horror as the head reformed. The monster grinned at him, its ethereal blue eyes laughing at him as black tendrils pierced his body.

 **line break Mercers pov**

Alex's first guess had been correct, this ship was not a simple pirate or raider ship, it was a slave ship. Mercer sighed as he passed several rows of cages two hunters one either side, the creatures within cowering back in fear. It seemed the universe still held onto its idea of slavery, a pointless practice that broke the wills of lesser creatures. While Mercer wasn't against slavery itself he was against the destruction it wrought on good minds. It destroyed creatures ability to prove that they were worthy of being evolved.

Though to some extent Mercer was in luck these creatures would save him from having to start testing individuals were worthy for some time. He was planning to start testing people on the next planet he stopped at. Those who were unworthy would be taken and used as test subjects while the worthy would be evolved.

Thanks to these slavers though he had a plethroa of broken test subjects sitting in cages. Along with the slavers themselves he would be set for at least a month. Though if he came across someone who looked promising enough he could still test them and from what he garnered from the fool who had shot him, there was a particular Twi'lek of interest on this very ordered the infected to head back to his ship and to begin to search for any other members of the crew or rouge slaves.

As these thoughts flew through Mercers mind he approached the cockpit, which had been sealed with a thick steel double door. It was circular the two halves of the door met in the center, either held together by its own weight or a magnetic lock. He rolled his eyes as he punched the center of the door, and then proceeded to pull the doors apart.

The captain stood at the other end of the room hiding behind a makeshift barricade of chairs and consoles. Beside him stood a group of five Twi'lek women, scantily clad and bound together in chains. Around the room stood three Wookie slaves, two Abyssins and four other humans.

The slaves and other humans opened fire, and were shocked as Mercer blurred across the room slamming his fist into a Wookie absorbing it as he morphed his hand into an orb of pulsing green and orange. The other hand morphed into a set of razor sharp claws. He threw it across the room as he continued to move and slice the nearby Abyssin in half.

The orb crashed into the other side of the room, several of the crew rolling out of the way. Unfortunately for said crew the orb exploded coating several of them in green slime, those that were hit instantly fainted as they were paralyzed. Mercer smirked as he broke the last slaves neck, the captain panicked pointing his gun and firing wildly at the monster that had slaughtered his men.

Mercer ignored the shots that hit him as he calmly began walking towards the captain. The captain shoved the Twi'leks in front of him, they tripped over their own feet and collapsed before Mercer. He pointedly ignored them, the chain shattered under his foot as he came within a few feet of the captain.

"Wait...You kill me all the slaves die to, some have a chip in them that will release poison if I die. The collars explode if I die, I'm the only one who knows the code to turn them off." The captain practiacally yelled in his panic, a crazed grin forming on his face as he realized he had a way out. Most slaver captains had such things installed. It was an excellent insurance against being killed. Any good samaritan couldn't without killing the slaves and pirates would lose the most valuable cargo.

"This kill switch, it activates if your heart stops beating right?" Alex asked with a raised eyebrow. His voice betrayed no emotion.

"Yeah...Yeah thats right so guess what? You better watch your step or..." The captain was stopped mid rant by the fist that had pierced his chest. He watched with a mix of shock and morbid fascination as his still beating heart and the implant connected to it were ripped from his chest. He could feel the life pouring from the gaping wound in his chest as the creature formed tendrils absorbed his heart and the creature than pierced him with those same tendrils.

 **line break**

Mercer had begun cleaning out the ship, those captured were currently being sorted into groups by species and gender. He had completely cleared out one of the four cargo holds for his test subjects, he had created a few devourers to clean out the cargo hold actually used for also had them devouring the cages that had been used to hold the prisoners, Mercer had no need for such crude imprisonment means. Instead his test subjects were hanging from the ceiling sealed in orange cocoons.

The quarters were at that very moment having their extra walls removed and turning the rooms into an armory for the weapons the crew had used. While the weapons were of no real use to Mercer he had plans for an upgraded form of the infected that could wield guns by wrapping there biomass around them.

He had removed the chips and collars before putting them into storage, the advantages of having multiple sharpened tentacles. All together the prisoners and slavers only took up one cargo hold, the other hold was being turned into a laboratory. The final cargo hold was being turned into a arena of sorts for Mercer to test his new creations.

Though he was slightly annoyed as he had been unable to find the escaped Twi'lek yet, his tendrils were combing the ventilation system so it was only a matter of...Ahh there she was, he smirked as the tendrils dragged her out. She was suspended in midair by a tendril holding her foot, and all together she was average.

She was somewhere between ten and twelve and rather short for her age, her hair tendrils were blue and green stripes. The only truely strange thing about her were her eyes, they were a striking green color. They had an edge that betrayed her killing instinct.

"I must say I'm impressed, somehow overcoming the slave chip. Escaping your cell, surviving in the vents for months and you managed to kill four slavers. It takes a lot to impress me." Mercer explained blank expression across his face. The girl growled and Mercer quickly realized the girl had no tongue.

"Hmmm...So you had little to no help if the state of your tongue is anything to go by. How would you like to never feel fear again, to feel invincible, to speak again." Mercer continued ignoring the girls growl. The girl went quiet at Mercers claims, before shaking her head.

"So you doubt my claims? Unsurprising one doesn't survive in such a hostile environment by not being paranoid but it is of no matter you will thank me when you wake up." Mercer stated as the girl began to yelp and growl. He stepped forward stabbing a single tendril into the center of her head. The tendril pulsed red as the girl went quiet. He than placed her within an orange cocoon within the arena.

He then moved to storage and ripped open one of the currently fifty cocoons, one of the captains Twi'lek slaves fell out gasping as she regained her senses. She was only conscious for a moment before she was devoured.

 **Line break Young Twi'lek pov**

Her head hurt, these were the first thoughts to cross her mind, the second was why the world was orange. It suddenly came back to her the strange human thing and its monster. The tendrils dragging her from her makeshift home in the vents, the odd talk and tentacle piercing her head. She panicked flailing wildly before with a stroke of luck she broke the outer layer of the sack.

She realized to late she was at least fifteen feet from the ground, she prepared to feel the cracking of bones. Instead she landed face first with a thud, and no pain came. Her eyes widened as she checked her body for any injuries and found none. Her mind flashed back to the conversation, "...to feel invincible..."

He hadn't lied? If that was true than she should be able to speak. "I...I can talk? I can talk!" The Twi'lek squealed as she jumped to her feet.

"It appears so, now lets see if you were actually worth my time..." The strange man spoke as he jumped down from an observation deck embedded in the upper wall. He landed with a loud thunk smirk in place as he threw a ball of black stuff at her. She reacted without thought rolling out of the way. Her reactions saved her, as the ball struck the ground it exploded outward in a mass of tendrils.

The Twi'lek went silent this man wanted her dead and after all she had been through she would not die here. She rushed forward, moving faster than she had ever thought possible. She attempted to punch him and was shocked as he caught her fist, throwing her across the room with a smirk. She felt the wall indent as she struck it.

"You know your naked at this very moment don't you?" The man shouted smirk firmly in place. She panicked blushing as she looked down and found the same slave garb she had been wearing earlier. She growled at the mans lie and was about to shout at him when he spoke again.

"Come on girl focus, it's not that hard to figure out." He shouted his smirk becoming a bored expression. She was tempted to charge him again but instead decided to try and do as he asked. She was shocked to find that she could feel her clothes, that they weren't truly there at all. She focused and watched as black tendrils emerged from her body, the dress shifting into the purple dress her mother had made her wear to a fancy party.

Her clothes than shifted into a simple white shirt black pants and black and white sneakers. Satisfied with her choice in clothing she rushed the man again, and was met with a similar result as last time. He caught her fist and threw her across the room.

"Come on girl your still thinking like one of the lesser lifeforms that litter this galaxy, use your brain!" The man shouted with a frown and disappointed look in his eyes. For some reason that bothered her more than the frown she wanted, no needed his approval. She thought of the orb the man had thrown at her, she dug deep focusing and felt her hand shift. Black covered her from her arm to her hand. Her hand became long and metallic taking a cone shape, reminiscent of a lance.

She charged again and was yet again met with failure as the man moved even faster than her dodging her strike. She continued her seemingly worthless assault, before he punched her hard in the gut launching her towards the ceiling.

She wanted to grip the roof and was shocked as her hair tendrils responded. Her hair tendrils changed becoming black and red striped. Her left tendril grew two metal prongs while her right tendril splintered at the end into about ten smaller tendrils. The right one was currently holding her to the ceiling.

She threw her left tendril on instinct and watched it fly towards the man. He caught it and tore her from the ceiling, smashing her into the ground. She felt it, she was hungry and watched as a strange walking creature formed from the wall. She didn't hesitate, stabbing the creature and pulling it into her body. Her strength returned but instead of feeling disgust at the act she had just committed she felt only invigoration.

"You're thinking to offensively, the man who said a good defense is a great offense is a fool. If you want to win a fight you need a great offense and a great defense." The man explained the smirk had not returned to his face instead he wore a simple smile as he threw another orb at her. She focused forming her other hand into a large shield and blocked the orb as it exploded, the tendrils bounced off her shield. She rushed the man again shield in front of her, ready to skewer the man. He caught her lance and shattered her shield holding her in place.

"I think that's enough for today, so what do you think." The man smiled as he released her arm, it reformed into a regular hand.

"Its...It's amazing what did you do" The girl shouted as she jumped up and down. She didn't even feel tired from the fight.

"I am Alex J. Mercer and I evolved you to a higher state of being. You showed traits that are worth preserving and improving. You showed you were already a cut above the rest of the creatures on this ship. You are now stronger, faster, and better than all those lesser beings out their, death nearly impossible, old age? Nothing but a forgotten memory. Welcome to the top of the food chain." Alex spoke smile on his face as he formed a chair from the black mass on the floor.

The girls eyes widened as she opened her mouth to speak, but she was interrupted "I just need you to do one more thing for me, focus outwards..." Alex said a commanding tone vibrating through his voice. She did as he said focusing outward, at first there was nothing but suddenly she felt it as Alex began speaking again.

"The best part about being evolved is..." As Mercer spoke she could feel it, the hive mind and nests growing on Dostrore. Each individual infected working to expand the already massive hive beneath the surface. She could feel the slugs that were currently eating away from the poorly maintained ship, the Devourers that were hard at work redesigning. She even could feel the floor beneath her feet, the living black mass that covered it.

From the smallest infected to the largest hunter she felt them all, yet at the center she felt a stronger prescence than any others, it came from Alex. "...We are never alone." Mercer finished. The girl stared at him for a moment before running forward and wrapping her arms around his chest hugging him tightly.

"My name is Sarah..." The girl whispered into Mercers ear.

 **Also there will be no romance in this fic, Mercer is a mass of viral tissue loving anyone beyond a friendship or family way is beyond him.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Message for my readers, any star wars experts please leave me some ideas! I know where I am going with this story but ideas of some things**

 **could do along the way would be greatly appreciated. Chapters one through three have been beta read so any grammar mistakes in four through six are on me. If it bothers you check back in a week or so for the chapters to be fixed up. Secondary note I had this story ready a couple days ago but wanted to wait for the issues with reviews to be fixed.**

 **Sarah pov**

Alex was strange, those thoughts had been on her mind for a while now. He had freed her from her captors and ensured she would never fear being enslaved again, yet he had not asked for anything in return. No in fact he never requested anything, instead she often found herself seeking him out, asking what she could do to help. She was ill-prepared for the task Mercer had in store for her, and even less prepared for how much she would enjoy it.

 **Line break**

Sarah had explored the entirety of the ship and was amazed at the sight of the red-black substance covering the walls. The orange pustules that lined the ceiling provided light and caused an orangish hue to everything. It was so strange, she could feel her own feet walking across the surface of the floor. Could feel the walls flesh that now covered the inner chambers of the ship.

She finally approached the prison chambers, they were full of slaves and slavers alike, she stared into one of the giant orange sacks. The hunter standing next to it sniffed the air, she patted it on the head as she stared at the captive twi'lek held within.

The imprisoned Twi'lek was female, as most of the Twi'leks on board the ship had been. She was a light green color, wearing a skimpy and revealing knew she should feel sorry for the creature currently trapped within the orange prison, yet she felt no sympathy for it.

It not she, Sarah realized. She could no longer associate the creature held in the prison for what she had become. She was better than the pathetic creature held captive before her, Alex had made her stronger, faster, better in every way.

He had even been making her smarter, once in a while he would put her to sleep. When she woke up she understood concepts of things she had never even dreamed of before. She knew what advanced mathematics were, mitosis, and advanced understanding of genetic manipulation. She should have been angry or worried that Alex could so easily manipulate her mind.

Yet all she could think was the simple fact it was Alex, and Alex would never hurt her. Why would he? She was part of him now, just like the flesh growing on the ship around her. Just like the hunters standing guard around the prisoners.

She suddenly felt a presence pressing upon he mind, images and ideas flashed through her mind. Alex wanted her to meet him in the arena, without a thought she began sprinting towards the arena, not due to being in a rush but because it was the most efficient way to move. She arrived and stood next to him on the view port over looking the arena. "Would you like to help me?" Alex asked as he stared into the arena.

Sarah smiled, nodding her head slightly. "I need you to test out the prisoners combat effectiveness, I have several viral strands I wish to test on alien bodies but I need a baseline of their capabilities to see the effects. I would send out a hunter but I felt you wouldn't intimidate the weaker willed prisoners into unconsciousness." Alex explained, a small grin playing across his face, Sarah simply nodded.

 **Line break**

Sarah was nervous, she didn't want to disappoint Alex. She stood at one end of the arena, waiting with baited breath for the hunter to arrive with whatever test subject he had selected. She was tempted to check through the hive mind but had decided to allow Alex to surprise her.

Suddenly one of the walls opened like a massive set of jaws. The hunter emerged the orange sack having connected to it's back, the jaws closed behind it. It turned standing on its hind legs back facing Sarah, the orange sack on it's back ruptured spilling orange liquid onto the floor. A Twi'lek lay sputtering on the ground coughing up the orange liquid.

The Twi'lek slowly sat up even as the hunter melted into the floor "SARAH!?" The Twi'lek shouted, confusion and joy warring across her features. Sarah took a moment to place her face, she was one of her mother's friends and had been on board the ship transporting her to the conference when they had been attacked by pirates.

The women had been nearly a second mother to Sarah to Sarah, having taken care of her when her mother couldn't. She had at times felt closer to the woman before her than to her own mother. The women was her mothers sister, she slowly approached her before falling to her knees in front of her. "It's really you? I thought...I thought you died on the ship." The women sobbed as she wrapped her arms around Sarah.

Sarah tried to feel something for the women currently bawling her eyes out into her shirt. The women she had known her whole life, her name was Lexin... Sarah still felt nothing as she slowly raised her arm and punched the women in the stomach. Lexin's body smashed into the floor with a light thud.

Lexin's eyes were wide as she slowly crawled back to her feet, shocked that the girl she had practically raised had struck her with such power. A mans voice filled the chamber, "Keep her on the defensive but hold back. I need to see her reflexes not see her get destroyed, not on this test subject anyway. We will test healing of lacerations and broken bones later. Try to keep the subject semi intact." The voice seemed to come from everywhere and if one were to look around they would see that mouths had formed along the upper reaches of the walls, the mouths were essentially round holes with teeth...

Lexin was terrified as the creature that looked like her little girl charge her again, this time moving at a far slower speed, her eyes were cold and empty. A sparkle caught Lexins eye as she rolled away from Sarah. There laying on the ground was a silver blaster pistol, if she had been in a better state of mind she would have questioned the fact it had not been their moments before but she was in a panic as she rushed to grab the weapon.

She rolled to her feet barely dodging another strike, blaster gripped tightly as she lined up a shot that would blow the face of her niece off. "Please! Please don't make me do this!" She cried gun shaking in her hand as her finger hovered over the trigger. Sarah hesitated, fear crossing her features as she eyed the gun.

"Sarah, we are beyond life and death. The worst that weapon could do is destroy your body, in which case you would simply reform on one of the hive worlds." The voice boomed through the chamber. To Lexins shock Sarah took his words to heart as she charged. She closed her eyes and pulled the trigger, the blast seemed to echo through her soul. The sickening realization she had just murdered the girl she had held as a baby, the vomit boiling in the back of her throat as she slowly opened her tearful eyes.

She had been ready to see a corpse with a smoking hole in its chest, what she saw instead was somehow far more scarring. Sarah still moving towards her with a blackened crater where her face had been. She had only a moment to feel the shock and fear as Sarah's fist impacted her gut launching her across the room.

"Very good, continue the stress and reflex test for the next hour, add in laceration injuries to test reflexes under blood loss." The voice echoed through the chamber as Sarah's face reformed in a mass of black tendrils. Sarah smirked as her arm lengthened into a metallic cone, seemingly growing from the black mass that made up her arm. Lexin eyes widened as she felt true terror...

 **Line break**

Lexin hurt everywhere, her whole body ached of exhaustion and an assortment of holes had been pinned into her body by Sarah's lance, luckily most of the wounds had clotted before she lost concinnous. She was running on empty though as she once again launched across the room by a powerful strike from Sarah's hair tendril. She hit the ground with a thud and was unable to muster the energy to move. Unable to even will herself to care about the loss of the useless energy pistol.

She hoped they would spare her, maybe use her for more test. Perhaps she could even try to reach Sarah given enough time, but somewhere deep within her soul, she doubted she would be leaving this arena.

"Test subject seems to have mostly expired, she is slightly more fragile than the average human female. Yet the subject has shown itself to be far more flexible and slightly faster. Subpar use of provided weapon, yet the subjects use of tendrils are disappointing. It seems one of there most useful features earlier on in their evolution has become either vestigial or used solely to attract a mate." The voice echoed throughout the chamber.

Lexin had only heard it a few times through out her supposed 'test' yet she had come to despise it. The way Sarah would jump so high whenever she heard it, doing exactly what it said with no hesitation. She had never tried even half as hard to please her mother or her.

"Administer strain DX-1118 D2, it is a highly modified strain of DX-1118 A. It is aimed to grip to a subject species DNA, find and mutate the most impressive features and redesign a creature around it. Though this one has the added disposition of having a tendril strain of the virus inserted into it. Basically it will create a unique if basic infected based on race, creating a template from which I can further evolve and change the infected." The voice explained as a syringe filled with a mixture red, orange, and blue liquid fell from the ceiling into Sarah's hand. The substance seemed to be moving within the syringe almost seeming to be trying to escape.

Lexin lightly lifted her head and watched in terror as Sarah approached her, needle in hand. She tried to will her body to move but her body was tapped. Thus she resorted to begging.

"Sarah please don't...Don't do this! What would your mother think!" She sobbed hoping against hope that something would get through to her. For a moment it seemed as if she succeeded, Sarah stopped dead in her tracks gripping the syringe tightly. Her hopes shattered though as Sarah smiled, it wasn't the warm loving smile Lexin had once been so familiar with. This smile was cold, angry, and ugly.

"I don't know I'll be sure to ask her before I eat her." Sarah explained coldly as she stuck the syringe into her neck. Lexin screamed, she could feel her skin boiling. Her bones liquifying, her brain melting within her skull. She felt herself fading from the world as she was consumed by unbearable pain. "How...(gurgle) Could you?" Lexin gasped her final words.

. "It was easy, I took this little needle and stuck it in your neck!" Lexin barely heard Sarah's answer as she faded from the world.

Sarah watched with fascination as Lexins body seemed to melt massive blue and black tendrils ripping from her body randomly. Some tendrils ended in metal spikes and blades. Other ended in a splintering into thousands of tiny tendrils. She became a large black blob with hundreds of reaching and grasping tendrils. suddenly a tentacle came down from the ceiling cutting off one of the many tendrils and brining it back to Alex.

"Sarah kill it, you will gain something very useful from it's DNA." Alex said an interested look in his eyes. Sarah nodded her head as she rushed the monstrosity, dodging tendrils and blades as she moved. She would have been able to strike the creatures center if not for a large blast striking her in the side, and knocking her off course.

She rolled with the blast, her eyes widened as she saw one of its many tendrils gripping the energy pistol. "Incredible it retained just enough of its intelligence to remember how to use the pistol...This, has great potential." Alex smiled slightly.

Sarah rushed around trying to get close to the beasts core, which was just a black mass. The pistol was more an annoyance than a real threat but the creature kept connecting it's tendrils to form shields to block her strikes, using the pistol to further divide her attention from it's many tendrils

The few times she did manage to penetrate it's defenses her lance failed to do enough damage. Her lance was made to penetrate and while with the right momentum it allowed her to pierce it shields. It was quite clear she needed a weapon to shear parts of the creature off if she wanted to reach it's core. Thus she rolled away from the creature, reshaping her DNA as she moved.

She based her new weapons on fusion of the hunters claws and her lance. Both of her arms became black with spikes growing from the shoulders, her hands replaced with a set of foot and a half long, six inch thick, razor-sharp blades. The blades edges were razor sharp bearing a blunt end. It bore a simple design, three straight marks appeared near the end of the blades. Small rivets appeared along the blades sides giving them a cracked look, these rivets allowed blood to flow back down to her arms. This allowed her to heal slowly over a long-term fight.

She leaped into the air spinning in midair by converting small amounts of her biomass into a gaseous form and pressurizing it in a specially made organ to propel her in mid-air. She became a blender of death slicing tendrils apart, reflecting the laser blast back at the creatures core.

It took ten minutes of slicing and dicing the creature's tendrils but she finally reached the creatures core sinking her newly formed blades into its withering body. Sarah felt no new consciousness enter her mind the creature having lost all but it's most basic instinct and muscle memory. Yet she could feel it's DNA entering her body. She fell to the ground, becoming a mass of tendrils as her body rebuilt itself.

When she stood again her bodies outer lair consisted of several large black tendrils. Intermixed with smaller blue and orange tendrils. Her body appeared to be wrapped in a coating of the tendrils forming a thick carapace, the tendrils ran down from her head. They were wrapped so closely they almost looked connected, her face was now covered in pitch black tendrils. There were no distinguishable facial features visible, her head-tendrils had turned blue bearing orange veins that pulsated.

Her arm and leg joints were wrapped in orange tendrils forming rings between her torso and limbs. The tendrils started from her head-tendrils seeming to sprout from the twin growths atop her head, from there they flowed down her body. Random orange and blue tendrils were intermixed into the black mass. Along her back blue rings grew from the outer armor, from those rings grew large thin black tendrils only slightly thicker than her feeder tentacles.

She had six of these back tendrils, the top two ending in large black three-fingered fist. The next two ended in three metal blades with a small mouth in the center. The final two simply ended... If she had a mouth she would be grinning as she stretched her new armored form. She sprinted forward slamming into the ground before Alex's grinning form.

"We are gonna hit planet side in three hours, from their find and devour your mother. Than work your way up the company in control over the deep sea mining and exploration. From what data I could gather from Lexins head, their company has outpost on thirty five planets, those resources and connections would be very useful for our future plans. I trust you will have no problem with this?" Alex questioned with a bored tone.

Sarah knew she should have been upset at the prospect of hunting down and devouring her mother yet all she could do was feel pride at the thought Alex trusted her. "No problem at all," Sarah said with a smile...

 **Another question for my readers, would you like to see other chapters like this? Where we focus on some Mercers evolved and their attitudes or would you rather I create a secondary story where I post chapters with the thoughts and activities of the evolved as they begin?**


	7. Chapter 7

**I would like to respond to a guest reviewer going by the name I like cheese. I thought I made it clear that mercer had no intention of making a single hive minded race, look closer at what my alex plans and I think you'll understand he is far smarter than he once was. On another note a guest reviewer called this story disgusting, I'** **m interested to hear why?**

 **Yoda's pov**

Yoda had many regrets, for one he had never fully mastered the galactic basic language. While he understood all the words within the language the lining up and nuances of the speech had alluded him. Instead he had chosen to use his connection to the force to make up for his confusion on the languages strange expression, choosing instead to skim the surface of his students minds to understand their true emotions and thoughts.

There was some irony to that thought, that he Yoda considered one of the most powerful icons of the force had failed to master a language considered so widely understood. Perhaps part of the reason was quite simply to make him seem more approachable to the young Jedi seeking advice or perhaps it was part of some grand balance, a payment for his mastery of the force.

What had brought about these strange thoughts? It had been a very peaceful day, it had been the first day in many years Yoda had smiled. He had felt something that gave him hope these dark days of the empires rule were numbered, two small flickers of light in the darkening universe. Those forces of light had a familiar feeling to them, they were the children of Anakin Skywalker. He had only felt them for a few seconds but he had taken it as a sign the force would soon return power to the light side.

He would have spent the whole day smiling, peacefully staring out onto the swamp he called home if not for one thing. He had felt a great disturbance within the force, one that was unaffiliated with either light or dark. With it came a vision...

 **Flashback**

Yoda smiled out onto his swamp when suddenly he felt a pull in the force, a great change. He focused outward and was horrified to find the ever flowing dark and light force that populated the universe had changed. Instead of the black white and grey colors that usually painted the universe, i the entire force had gained a light shade of red, orange and black streaks seemingly scattered randomly.

The red tint felt hungry, grasping at the force as a starving man gripping for a loaf of bread. The force itself was screaming in pain, sending out pulses of black and white trying to push back the horrible starving red. It was as if...The force had become ill and it was now trying to repel some great disease or infection.

Yoda followed the redness back to a distant arm of the galaxy and was shocked to see the red tinge became nearly all encompassing, the streaks of black and orange became larger and more common the nearer his senses got to the source. Finally he spread his senses out into the great red mist. He finally saw the center, a great monolith of red and black pulsating tendrils reaching out releasing the red of it's power out as it gripped the force.

Yoda could feel the force winning, pushing back the red. The monolith suddenly shifted, condensing down into a human shape. As the red was almost fully pushed back a figure became clear, the human shape had a leather jacket, blue pants, and overall looked mostly average. The only truly remarkable thing about the man were his eyes glowing an ethereal blue color holding the same hunger as the red mist he had created.

The man started to burn away in black and white fire, as the force began rejecting him. Yet he did not scream in pain as he was forcibly ripped from the force, in fact the last thing the man did was smile.

 **End flashback**

At first Yoda had tried to tell himself the force had destroyed that strange creature, yet the second that comforting thought could enter his mind the midichlorians within his body screeched in protest. The force itself rejected such an idea, whatever had infected the force would return.

Thus with a heavy heart Yoda sent his senses back out unto the universe and for once felt a small amount of relief at the sight of two massive pillars of darkness and hate. Whatever was coming would be a threat to the force as a whole, both light and dark would be needed to fight the coming disease. His relief was tempered however at the sight of small flecks of fear rolling from the darkness.

 **Vader pov**

That strange presence in the force had not been something Vader was prepared for, what he had been planning for the murder of his emperor since the day he had been betrayed. Not in some grand act for the light side of the force which had abandoned him to his fate, but instead in a final act of vengeance against the galaxy as a whole. In these terbulent times losing the emperor would strike a massive blow against the stability of all galactic civilization. Political leaders would scramble for power as his followers did the same and by the end of the fighting, the galatic empire would be in shambles.

Yet these plans had been made before he had felt the force itself being twisted and enslaved, his master had failed to realize the true implications of what the man in the mist had been doing. Palpitine had belevied that the man was attempting to poison and destroy the force. It was easy to forget that even with his masters far greater experience in the matters of the force he was not as connected as he was.

His master saw parts of the force dying and had assumed that was the creatures intent but Vader had seen the truth. The creature had been ripping the force apart by enslaving it, twisting it to match it's own twisted desire. The worst part, the thing that made Vader feel fear for the first time since he had walked in the light? The fact that if the creature had a bit more time it would have succeeded.

Yet he also realized that if the creature should succeed it would not be to far off his own plans of destabilizing the galactic empire. The only problem was it would be a hollow vengeance, he should be the one who struck the blow against the galaxy not some creature from across the galaxy. He was no fool though, it was clear the force itself was influencing his choice not to kill his master anyway, to wait till the creature was dealt with before striking Palpatine down.

The force was afraid and to protect itself it would influence those who listened into holding off on slaying one another, it could not stop them altogether but it would do all it could to keep it's force users alive to fight the coming storm. He felt hate swell even as the force gripped to the few shards of Anakin still buried deep within his soul. He would face the great beast and only than would he claim his vengeance.

All these thoughts raced through Vaders mind as he electrocuted and abused several of the empires best recruits. He ignored several screams for him to stop as he knew any who died deserved their fate for being weak. This was the closest thing he had found to the meditating he had once done so freely as a jedi. He could no longer find inner peace but that was one of many prices one must pay to embrace the darkside of the force.

 **Palpatine pov**

Palpatine had been rather pleased, he had discovered one of his oldest students was hiding out on some backwater planet on the edge of the galaxy. His student had experienced a moment of weakness and thus he had been able to sense his presence along with the presence of some other great dark entity. Palpatine had planned to send Vader to either collect his old apprentice if he was willing or destroy him if he refused. Than Vader would move on to face the other dark entity and attempt to bring it to their side.

Unfortunately, his scheming had been interrupted by one of the worst experiences Palpatine had felt in centuries. He had felt death, that was a sobering thought. His student hadn't felt it, the weakness crawling into his body as the red mist spread. Vaders body was hugely mechanical and while his body used the force to help it survive he was not completely reliant on it. He had no such protection, his body was almost completely sustained by the force. The red mist weakening of the force within his body had almost ended his life.

He was no fool, he was well aware physically he had become frail but he had always believed that through the force he could overcome any challenge. Yet the creature had turned that belief on it's head, the red mist had weakened his connection to the force only slightly yet it had profound effects on his body. He had come out of his trance panting for breath.

He felt it, the temptation to panic and send all of his forces to comb half the galaxy in search of the creature. He would not though, the odds of finding the creature were far too unlikely and the resources far too expensive. Plus should he fail the beast would know it had scared him, he would continue his plans instead. He would also prepare though, for he would find the creature and see it killed. He refused to die in his bed grasping for the force as an old man gasping for one more breath. He refused to die fighting an enemy he couldn't even see!

 **Mercer pov**

Mercer was pleased with Sarah's progress, she had learned much in there time together. From the intricacies of her own genetic manipulation abilities, to her main objective of infiltrating the water world company her mother worked for and replacing the C.E.O so they could gain a steady supply of resources and would ensure no one would question shipments of rare metals.

Plus they could speed up the mining trumendously with the use of specialized hydra, it would also allow for them to gain a foothold of influence among the galaxy. Though one of the main purposes was to search for planets with rare and plentiful enough resources to plant hive minds and nest. Sarah was currently preoccupied in the chamber where she had devoured her aunt. She was currently fighting a group of three hunters without using her hair, it was some kind of personal challenge she had come up with to pass the time before they landed.

 **Sarah's pov**

Sarah was excited. She was finally going to get a chance to contribute to the hive, to help advance Alex's goals. Had she not been so indoctorined to Alex Mercer she would have realized just how much her goals had changed, she had gone from wanting to kill the monsters who'd kidnapped her, to serving Alex and his plans.

Alex had already wandered off to explore the rest of the planet while she began infiltrating the companies headquarters. Though infiltration was a bit of a strong word for what she was currently doing, which consisted of walking in the front office and crying for her mother.

Not the most creative plan in the world really, but Alex had refused to help her plan ahead. Claiming some nonsense about learning from experience as for how she knew it was nonsense? Alex hadn't even bothered trying to convince her otherwise and she had made sure he could hear her thoughts through the hive mind.

Something told her that he was only making her do it by herself for his own amusement, this only seemed more likely as she felt a distant chuckle reverberate through the hive mind.

She sighed as she stepped through the front door of the office building, at least today would be interesting if nothing else.

 **I apoligize for the length of time since the last update but I've run into some writers block recently if this chapter seems to short thats why. I felt I should get this chapter out now rather than wait even longer for my writers block to fade.**


End file.
